Stripey Side Border and Background Tutorial
My thanks as always to the fabulous team at Force Fantastic who make it all possible. This tutorial is dedicated to Marge. Hoping you feel better soon Sugar.
This is what we will be making:
You will need:
PSP 9, X or XI
A Graphic or a tube
20/20 Mask (Zip Here)
Toadies Filters
Simple Filters
FM Tile Tools
This is what you do.
1. Open your chosen graphic or tube in PSP, duplicate and close the original. Size doesn't matter at the moment as long as it is no smaller than 200 x 200 pixels. Try to choose an image that is as square as possible and one that has a central image because we will be masking it. If you use a misted tube then you can leave out the masking steps.
2. Layers/Load/Save Mask/Load Mask from Disk. Load 20/20 Mask using the following settings:-
3. Layers/Merge/Merge Group
4. Image/Resize. Resize image to 200 pixels on it's longest side using the following settings. Resample using Bicubic/Lock aspect Ratio and Resize all Layers Checked.
5. Image/Canvas Size. Resize to 250 x 250 pixels/Image Placement Click on the centre button.
6. Layers/New Raster Layer
7. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom
8. Highlight your top Image Layer and Layers/Duplicate.
9. Dropper Tool/Choose a colour for the background to your image.
10. Highlight your bottom layer and using your Flood Fill Tool fill the layer with your chosen colour.
11. Highlight your middle layer. Effects/Plugins/Toadies/Blast 'n Blur using the following settings:
12. Effects/Distortion Effects/Wind using the following settings:- Wind Direction/From Left/Wind Strength/3.
13. Layer Palette/Blend Mode/Change the Blend mode of this layer to-----------I have used Dodge which gives a nice glow with some colours but not with others. Screen and Difference also work well with different colours. Go through them and choose which you prefer and then lower the opacity if necessary until your background is to your liking and doesn't glare. See below:
14. If you are happy with the way it looks Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten
15. Choose a colour from your image as your foreground colour. This will be the colour of the stripes on your border. Keep your background colour the same as you chose for your image background.
16. Image/Add Borders/ 2 pixels/Symmetric using your foreground colour
17. Image/Add Borders/2 pixels/Symmetric/using your background colour
18. Image/Add Borders/ 2 pixels/Symmetric using your foreground colour
19. Image/Add Borders/30 pixels/Symmetric/White
20. Selection Tool/Magic Wand using the following settings/Select the white Border:
21. Selections/Invert
22. Edit/Copy
23. Selections/Invert
24. Selections/Promote Selection to Layer
25. Edit/Paste into Selection
26. Selections/Select None
27. Effects/Reflection Effects/Kaleidoscope using the following settings:
28. Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel using the following settings: Bevel 2/Width 2/Smoothness 50/Depth 1/Ambience: Adjust this to lighten or darken your border. Because my chosen colour is very dark I have set it at 40/Shininess 0/Colour: Use your foreground colour or another of your choice to change the colour of this border/Angle 315/Intensity 40/Elevation 40.
29. Effects/3D Effects Drop Shadow using the following settings: Vertical and Horizontal 3/Opacity 30/Blur 10/Colour Black/Shadow on New Layer NOT checked.
30. Repeat using minus 3 vertical and horizontal settings.
31. Effects/Plugins/FM Tile Tools/Blend Emboss/Default settings but move the Grey Level to 255.
32. Image/Add Borders/20 Pixels/White
33. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Same Settings/Select the white border
34. Selections/Promote Selection to layer
35. Edit/Paste/Paste into Selection
36. Selections/Select None.
37. Effects/Reflection Effects/Kaleidoscope using the following settings:-
38. Effects/3D Effects/Inner Bevel using the same settings as before.
39. Effects/Reflection Effects/Rotating Mirror using the following settings:
40. Effects/Plugins/Simple Filters/Top Left Mirror.
41. Effects/FM Tile Tools/Blend Emboss/Same Settings as before.
42. Close your top layer by clicking on the eye in the layer palette and highlight your background layer.
43. Layers/Promote Background Layer
44. Selection Tool/Magic Wand/Select the white border
45. Press delete on your keyboard
46. Selections/Select None
47. Effects/3D Effects/Drop Shadow/Same settings as before.
48. Repeat Drop Shadow with minus 3 vertical and horizontal settings.
49. Re-open your top layer. Your image is 362 x 362 pixels if you prefer a smaller side border resize now. I have made mine 340 x 340.
50. Image/Canvas Size/Resize your canvas to 1024 (or whatever your screen resolution is) x the height of your image/Placement centre left button.
51. Close your bottom layer by clicking on the eye in the layer palette and highlight your top layer.
52. Effects/3D Effects Drop Shadow/using the same settings as before but this time CHECK Shadow on New Layer.
53. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tiling using the following settings:-
54. Layers/Merge/Merge Visible
Repeat steps 52 - 53 changing only the drop shadow settings to minus 3 Vertical and Horizontal
55. Re-open your bottom layer and Layers/Merge/Merge Visible
56. Selection Tool/Custom Selection using the following settings:
57. Edit/Copy and Deselect
58. Edit/Paste as new image/Minimize
59. Layers/New Raster Layer
60. Layers/Arrange/Send to Bottom
61. Materials Palette select two colours to create your background gradient. These can be the colours already in your materials palette or you can select two others to compliment your image.
62. Materials Palette/Gradient/Foreground/Background/Angle 45/Repeats 0/Style Linear
63. Flood Fill Tool/Flood fill your bottom layer with the gradient.
64. Effects/Image Effects/Seamless Tiling using the following settings: Mirror/Bi-directional/Horizontal and Vertical 0/Width 50
65. Effects/Distortion Effects/Displacement Maps/Using the following settings:- Displacement map/using the drop down box find the image of the cut out section you minimized earlier/Tile map to cover image Checked/Size 50 or bigger if you prefer/Blur 0/3D Surface/Intensity 50 -100 (the effect will vary with each different colour used so set the intensity where you prefer it)/Rotation 0/Repeat Checked
66. Layers/New Raster Layer/Add your watermark if you wish.
67. Layers/Merge/Merge all Flatten
You can select the centre stripe and fill with a pattern (see examples below) but make sure that it will tile OK.
Export as a Jpeg setting the compression at 25.
Assemble in Letter Creator placing the image in the Body Section. Adjust your text to the width of your image plus 10-20. Add your footer details. You can add a link to my site at www.force50.co.uk if you wish or link direct to this tutorial.
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial if you have any questions or would like to share your result with me you can find me here
© Tricia January 12th 2007
Tube used in this example by Suzi Sgai.
The graphic used in this example is by an unknown artist.
Tube in this example by Lib's Tubes
This tutorial is entirely my own work and any resemblance to any other is purely co-incidental. Please do not copy, duplicate, translate, script or use in any groups without my permission.